#Winning

To understand what it feels like for Seattle to win a major championship, you have to understand what it is to be from Seattle, to be the best at something and simultaneously not get there.

You have to understand the amount of negative, undervaluing, “underdog” chat that has always gone on in every franchise for my entire life and beyond. Even now I am watching the Today show and instead of talking about the amazing win for the Seahawks, they are commenting on the “tough, tough loss for the Broncos.”

You have to understand what it feels like for a hometown business man (Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz) who waxes nostalgic about growing up loving the Sonics, who buys our basketball team – the team that pushed the Chicago dream team and Michael Jordan to the brink in the playoffs! The team that brought home the only other championship for Seattle in 1979! – turns around and SELLS THE FRANCHISE, sends it to Oklahoma and leaves our basketball stadium empty.

To have the record setting baseball team with the most wins (EVER!) in a regular season from 20o1 with 114!!!! And then not make it past the playoffs.

To have gone to the Superbowl once (only once!!) before (in 2006, while I was in college in Illinois and flew home just to watch the game here, with my family) and to legitimately lose because of terrible officiating.

You have to have seen all over social media how many mean (and I mean, MEAN) comments flew around as the Seahawks went through the playoffs, not only bad mouthing the team for not having a trophy, but also super bad mouthing the fans – which never even made sense to me! You’re going to shit on fans for loving their team and being passionate? Look at the Cheeseheads! The Patriot fans! The Bears fans! I mean, c’mon… who doesn’t have awesome crazy fans? Anyway – you get the idea.

So now we’ve won, so no more underestimating us ok? No more underdog talk. No more shock ‘n awe….

Well, on second thought… sure! Go ahead! Call it a fluke, say that it wasn’t a Seahawk’s win but a Bronco’s loss. Do it. And we’ll just keep surprising the nation. Again and again and again. Get ready for the new normal.

7 Comments

Lindsey
February 3, 2014

I can relate on many levels to what you talk about because I am (and forever will be) a Lions fan. The “same old Lions” and the “here we go again” and the “someone wearing a Lions hat to the Superbowl is the closest the Lions will ever get to it” comments are beyond old–more like fossils. To have never even MADE it to the Superbowl (hell, the last time we even won a playoff game was in 1957!!) Everyone bad mouthing Suh and saying he’s such a dirty player because he made a few mistakes as a rookie but is generally just an aggressive player. Do ESPN and anyone talk about how he’s matured and become a real leader on the team? Doesn’t he deserve to have his reputation re-evaluated? One day, one day. The Lions will prove all of the haters wrong and we too will be on top!
Anyways. I couldn’t be happier that the Seahawks won. I’ve been rooting them on all year. Nothing really against Peyton and the Broncos, but man does seeing the underdog come out on top really pull at my heart.
I hope you and your fellow 12th men soak up this fantastic win and revel in it! Go Hawks!

I have to say that one of my favorite things this season, was seeing all my Seattle friends get SO excited about the Superbowl. As an East Coast girl, who hasn’t made it to Seattle yet, in my head Seattle is all coffee and grunge and throwing fish around. It was neat to get a look at the depth of the fandom.

YES. I had a moment of heart gripping panic on my way to the bar yesterday, “what if we LOSE??!” and then we got that safety a few minutes to the game and I had this clear vision that we were going to win and everything was going to be amazing. AND IT WAS.

I mean, obviously I wanted the Seahawks to win yesterday. Obviously. But what made it even MORE DELICIOUS? Knowing that the majority of the country was rooting against us. Seattle has always been seen as this backwater town, tucked up in the far rainy corner of the country. No one takes us seriously. Heck, most of the time they don’t even remember us. And then to have Seattle front and center — not just the team, the players, but the fans, too — it felt amazing. Like, WE ARE HERE, AND YOU CAN’T IGNORE US.

(PS — that Today Show comment is incredibly obnoxious.)

(PSS — that 114-winning season for the Mariners? The fact that we didn’t make it farther? STILL HURTS. Football is good fun, but I’ll always be a baseball girl at heart…)

I was not necessarily rooting AGAINST the Seahawks. I was only rooting FOR the Broncos, who haven’t seen a ring since I was in the 5th grade and sporting a Davis jersey, and who came SO CLOSE last year but lost it in the final rounds.

But, as sore as I was about the loss yesterday (and concerned for my fanatic dad’s blood pressure), Seattle got exactly what they deserved! And it was so fun to watch the news and the Facebook feeds with all the fans getting so pumped! I always love to see that. Because, just like the NFL commercial said, the fans, the team, the franchise becomes a “WE”. And isn’t awesome to feel a part of something, win or lose?

I was so beyond excited to watch the game yesterday and i think i had the same feelings that you did- it was hard to really convey to everyone else who wasn’t from Seattle WHY this was so huge. And im still incredibly confused why everyone hates the fans so much? I was just up in Seattle and it was so awesome to see how the ENTIRE city was so wrapped up in hometown pride. Also after the game #howSeattleRiots became my favorite hashtag in recent memory!

Who the hell is she?

Lauren

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